The present application relates to the field of ballistic armor, and more particularly to an armor arrangement that includes a plurality of ballistic tiles cooperatively arranged to realize a flexible body.
The state of the art in torso protection is the (E/X)SAPI (small arms protective insert) plate. A typical SAPI plate armor includes a ceramic armor plate (SAPI plate) having a strike face and a compressed polymer fiber backing. A SAPI plate is usually a contoured plate that covers mostly the region of the heart and lungs. The advantage of a SAPI plate is that it is a comparatively lightweight body of consistent point-to-point ballistic behavior with respect to the first shot because it does not include seams, or redundant overlap of protection. The disadvantage of the SAPI plate is that it imposes a turtle-like discomfort for the user, and is unpredictable in second shot performance because of extensive random radial cracking often emanating from the point of impact of the first shot.
To provide flexibility, body armor comprised of imbricated tiles has been proposed by Neal, U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,777. Such an armor arrangement, while flexible, employs discus-shaped tiles having convex surfaces that make contact with one another when imbricated. Consequently, large gaps are formed between the tiles when the armor flexes. Furthermore, and an imbricated arrangement of discus-shaped tiles is not weight-optimized compared to a SAPI plate.